By: Victor Trammell Quentin Tarrantino’s Django Unchained was released in theatres on Christmas Day last year. The slavery-themed spaghetti western revenge story met a slew of controversy upon its arrival in late 2012. The film stars Jamie Foxx (pictured right) and is co-starred by Christopher Waltz (pictured left). Critics of Django Unchained lambasted the film because of its language. A big vocal critic of the movie was film maker Spike Lee. The 55-year-old Lee pointed out the fact that Quentin Tarantino’s script for Django Unchained profusely uses the n-word and Lee decried what he called Tarantino’s infatuation with the word. In true Quentin Tarantino fashion, the 49-year-old director defended the film and spoke out against compromising his art for the sake of censorship. Last December in front of an audience of Bafta members and film critics at Django Unchained’s first private screening in the UK, Tarantino told the audience members: “ We all intellectually ‘know’ the brutality and inhumanity of slavery. But after you do the research it’s no longer intellectual any more, no longer just historical record – you feel it in your bones. It makes you angry, and want to do something … I’m here to tell you, that however bad things get in the movie, a lot worse s**t actually happened. When slave narratives are done on film, they tend to be historical with a capital H, with an arms-length quality to them. I wanted to break that history-under-glass aspect, I wanted to throw a rock through that glass and shatter it for all times, and take you into it.” (TheGuardian.com, UK) Regardless of the controversy stirred up by Django Unchained , the film won Tarantino an Oscar last night for best original screenplay. The film also won actor Christoph Waltz an Oscar for best supporting actor.

What's Going On

Quentin Tarrantino’s Django Unchained was released in theatres on Christmas Day last year.

The slavery-themed spaghetti western revenge story met a slew of controversy upon its arrival in late 2012. The film stars Jamie Foxx (pictured right) and is co-starred by Christopher Waltz (pictured left). Critics of Django Unchained lambasted the filmbecause of its language. A big vocal critic of the movie was film maker Spike Lee. The 55-year-old Lee pointed out the fact that Quentin Tarantino’s script for Django Unchained profusely uses the n-word and Lee decried what he called Tarantino’s infatuation with the word.

In true Quentin Tarantino fashion, the 49-year-old director defended the film and spoke out against compromising his art for the sake of censorship. Last December in front of an audience of Bafta members and film critics at Django Unchained’s first private screening in the UK, Tarantino told the audience members: